Tell Secretary Salazar: No Drilling in the Arctic Ocean

The pristine waters of America’s Arctic Ocean are in danger. These waters provide critical habitat for iconic species such as polar bears, whales, and walrus that are already suffering the effects of dramatic climate change. Little is known about this region and about how this region may be impacted by oil drilling.

Yet, the Obama administration is determined to move forward with drilling. This could put oil drilling rigs into sensitive waters where an oil spill could have catastrophic effects. Information is missing to assess the impacts of drilling, let alone responsibly manage it. And no technology currently exists to clean up oil spilled in frozen seas.

Giving approval of more oil drilling leases is a move away from a clean energy economy and towards a deeper reliance on dirty fossil fuels while putting our Arctic Ocean and the wildlife that thrive there at unnecessary risk.

Urge Secretary Salazar to take a much more cautious approach to offshore oil drilling in these remote waters.

Letter to

Dept. of InteriorSec. Ken Salazar

Allowing oil drilling and development in the pristine and remote waters of America’s Arctic Ocean is a risky and unnecessary venture. Government scientists agree that more data is needed to fully understand the impacts of an oil spill in this sensitive region. Given this, I urge you to rescind Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 193 leases and gather vital missing baseline data and oil spill response information before moving forward with leasing and drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

This remote region is one of the least understood areas of the world, and an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean would devastate endangered bowhead whales, polar bears, seals and other marine wildlife and would severely affect Native subsistence communities which have thrived in this remote region for thousands of years. No technology currently exists to clean upan oil spill in frozen and icy seas.

The rush to allow oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean moves us away from a clean energy future that doesn’t rely on dirty fossil fuels. It puts a sensitive ecosystem at unnecessary risk. It threatens endangered and threatened species, as well as Native communities.

Please consider the impacts of your decision to open the Arctic Ocean to oil drilling. Just over a year ago, a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico devastated that region. Don’t make the same mistake twice by opening the Arctic Ocean to unsafe oil drilling.